


Astronaut

by StormVandal



Category: Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance
Genre: M/M, tw: brief mentions of self harm and suicide attempts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 14:49:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1782898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormVandal/pseuds/StormVandal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's just something about the stars.</p>
<p>**PLEASE NOTE: I no longer consider myself a Fall Out Boy fan, and actively dislike Pete Wentz. I'm leaving this story up for now, but there's a good chance it'll be either deleted or orphaned in the future. If you enjoy this story and would like to reread it, it would probably be wise for you to find and bookmark it on my livejournal (stormvandal.livejournal.com).**</p>
            </blockquote>





	Astronaut

Mikey Way comes out of nowhere.  
No one in Pete's town knows who he is or where he came from. He has no family, no money, no ID. One day he's just _there_ , sitting at the counter of the only pizza joint in town. The guy working the cash register asks what his name is and receives a blank look in return.  
It's Pete who names him Mikey Way. It just pops into his head the first time he sees the guy.  
It's lunchtime, and Pete's gone for pizza instead of gagging down a school lunch. The TV is turned to the news channel for the nearest big city, and a guy who Pete's never seen before is looking at his slice of cheese pizza like he has no idea what it is.  
"I haven't seen you around here before," Pete says.  
The stranger nods, an awkward little bob of the head.  
"What's your name?"  
Silence in response. The anchor lady is talking about some meteor showers that had happened the night before. The cook is whistling in the kitchen.  
"Mikey Way," says Pete, surprising himself.  
"Okay," says the stranger.

 

Nobody really knows what to make of Mikey.  
Nobody has any idea who he is. The police go through missing person reports and can't find a match. He won't reveal anything about himself; in fact, he hardly speaks at all.  
The townspeople seem inclined to be good to him. It's kind of bizarre. Restaurant owners feed him for free; several homeowners offer him a place to stay. Pete's seen drifters come through before, and none of them have been treated like this. Mikey's just this scrawny, bespectacled kid who can't be much older than Pete; there's nothing outwardly special about him.  
But Pete's drawn to him too. And lucky for him, Mikey seems to be drawn right back. He trails after Pete like a lost puppy, and if it were anyone else Pete would be seriously annoyed, but with Mikey, he's pleased.  
"Why do you even like me?" Pete asks one evening when they're sitting side by side on his back lawn. The dusk gives him courage to ask what he's been wanting to since they met. "Like, why me?"  
"You've fallen too," says Mikey simply.  
Pete gulps and tugs his hoodie sleeves down farther over the sprawling networks of old scars on his wrists. When he gets up the courage to look at Mikey again, Mikey's eyes are turned to the sky.

 

Pete falls way too hard and fast for this guy considering he knows nothing about him. But he can't help it. Mikey makes Pete feel expansive, infinite. He makes him feel like he deserves the space he takes up.

 

Mikey turns down all offers of accommodation and chooses to stay in an abandoned barn out near Pete's house. He sleeps in the loft, directly under a huge hole in the roof. Pete's going to point out that Mikey could get rained on or something, but the remark feels silly before it's even left his lips.  
One day Mikey shows up at Pete's window with a bright red rope mark around his neck. Pete doesn't say anything, just pulls Mikey into his arms and lets him cry.  
"I want to go home," Mikey says. "I want to go home."  
"Where's home?" Pete asks. "I'll help you get there."  
"You can't," Mikey says. The tone of his voice makes Pete feel small, and very young.

 

The sky is a hundred different shades above them as they stand side by side next to the tree in Pete's backyard. The expansive feeling is back. Pete feels like he could fly, if he really wanted to.  
"I love you," he says.  
Mikey kisses him hard on the lips. Pete's head is spinning; there are stars behind his eyelids.

 

As time passes, Mikey's silences become heavier. Pete practically aches every time he goes near him, as though Mikey's pain is tangible. Pete asks him questions, tries to figure out how to help, but every question only seems to make Mikey farther away.  
Finally, one night, when the two of them are pressed up together in the hay of the old barn under the inky night sky, Pete asks the question he's been holding off on asking; he's not sure what the answer will be, and he's not sure he wants to hear it.  
"What are you?"  
Mikey looks at him, his eyes burning with an intensity that pierces through the darkness, and there are tears running down his cheeks before he even starts talking.  
"I am light and dust and gas and heat. I am young, but I am millions of years old. I am made of the cosmos, of galaxies and nebulae and comet tails. I want to go home. I want to go home. I am a star and I want to go home."

 

Mikey disappears the way he came. Nobody knows where he went; he vanished silently, and barely left a trace.  
Pete spends the day under his covers. From downstairs, he can hear the anchorlady talking about a meteor shower. His chest feels achingly empty.  
That night, he goes out to the barn. He lies in the hay with his face turned up to the sky and says, "It's okay. I understand. I'm glad you're home."  
The stars twinkle above him. _I love you_ , Pete thinks. _I love you. I love you._ and he can't really tell if it's his own thoughts or if the idea that Mikey could somehow be speaking to him isn't just wishful thinking after all.

 

Nobody really understood why Pete ended up an astronaut. He'd never liked science before, never taken an interest in anything other than poems and song.  
Pete didn't tell anyone that he still didn't even like science. "There's just something about the stars," he would tell anyone who asked. "There's just something about them."


End file.
